Bolivia Supporting Ministry Trains Young People for Wholistic Mission Service

An accident and a time of reflection changed the lives of Seventh-day Adventist dentist Dosung Kim and his family. While piloting his plane one evening almost two decades ago, with his wife and children on board, the plane developed mechanical issues and began losing altitude. The family crash-landed in an orchard, but everyone miraculously survived unharmed. This near-death experience led to a personal spiritual revival for Kim and a desire to serve God more fully in mission service.

Originally from South Korea, the Kims decided to embark on a mission they hadn’t imagined before: to be self-supporting missionaries in Bolivia. In 2008 the Kims—Dosung, Anita, and their three boys—accepted what they believe was God’s call to move and launch a ministry in that South American country.

In Bolivia the Kims launched a medical missionary medical program that today is known as Quebrada León Institute (IQL). A member and regional leader of Outpost Centers International (OCI), an organization that connects lay-led ministries that support the message and mission of the Adventist Church, IQL (registered under the Orion Foundation’s legal name) is the brainchild of the Kims. IQL and OCI are independent supporting ministries not controlled by or legally affiliated with the Adventist Church.

In several recent supporting ministries conventions around the world, Kim and some of the IQL staff shared what the ministry does to train missionaries with a heart for the health message, evangelism, and church growth.

A Center of Physical and Spiritual Healing

IQL is located on a 400-acre (160-hectare) property in El Torno, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The ministry began with a single dilapidated chicken coop turned into a multipurpose building. As the institute’s student-enrollment increased, its leaders were forced to hold classes outdoors for lack of space inside. “When we finally built our building, we felt we were in a palace,” Kim shared with a smile, recounting the experience.

The ministry welcomes students from across Bolivia, Peru, and other countries and provides them with tools to become frontline mission workers. Students can learn about health principles, including healthy eating and natural remedies.

Students also learn how to start and grow an organic garden; and several industries, including a bakery on the school premises, provide prospective missionaries with hands-on education. Worship music also has a prominent role in the spiritual life of the institute, its leaders reported. At IQL “people’s lives have been changed through training, and they are impacting the community,” OCI president Steve Dickman recently said.

Training Prospective Evangelists

IQL also trains its students to become evangelists wherever they go. Through a partnership agreement with Amazing Facts and its School of Evangelism (AFCOE), the institute has offered focused training to reach out to others. But it’s not just theoretical knowledge that students acquire; the school also organizes and carries out evangelistic initiatives with the help of the institute students and other volunteers.

The school missionary efforts have resulted in baptisms and a new Adventist congregation, which eventually became a full-fledged Adventist church. “It’s been a wonderful process,” Kim said, noting how they have witnessed, again and again, God’s hand in the ministry endeavors.

Recently IQL opened what the institute leaders call a center of influence in the town closest to the school campus. East Bolivia Mission president Samuel Jara and other regional church leaders were present at the inauguration ceremony. “We work very closely with the church [administration],” Kim emphasized. The new center comprises a health-food store that sells whole-grain bread, granola, juices, and other healthy foods.

According to Kim, there are plans to provide health seminars and cooking classes, among other outreach and missionary initiatives, at the new venue. But beyond any plan and initiative, there’s a clear and definite objective, Kim shared. “At the end of the day, everything we do is driven by the goal of bringing more people into God’s kingdom,” he said.

Outpost Centers International is a supporting ministry not affiliated with the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.